Published: 2023-05-06

The legal status of reservations to bilateral international agreements as exemplified by the Panama Canal Treaty of September 7, 1977

Łukasz Rupniak
Zeszyty Prawnicze
Section: Artykuły
https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2023.23.1.07

Abstract

The aim of this article is to determine the legal status of the reservations made by the United States of America to the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal of September 7, 1977, i.e. to a bilateral international agreement. The article also has an implicit aim, to determine whether international law admits reservations to bilateral international agreements. I analyze the origins of the institution of the reservation; the norms applicable in treaty law with particular emphasis on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties signed in Vienna on May 23, 1969; the practice of states and the position of the doctrine of treaty law. My analysis has confirmed my preliminary research hypothesis, namely that reservations may be made only to multilateral agreements, and thus the reservations made by the United States to the Panama Canal Treaty cannot be considered reservations as understood in treaty law. Consequently, these reservations may be considered to constitute only a new negotiating offer.

Keywords:

treaty law;, reservations;, bilateral international agreements;, bilateral treaties.

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Rupniak, Łukasz. (2023). The legal status of reservations to bilateral international agreements as exemplified by the Panama Canal Treaty of September 7, 1977. Zeszyty Prawnicze, 23(1), 163–183. https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2023.23.1.07

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